To the editor:

Thank you for your excellent coverage of Lawrence real estate news.

After the City Commission voted 3-2 to grant a generous tax break to a former city commissioner to build luxury apartments, it seems that other developers are eager to stick their snoots in the public trough. There’s a proposal for a new convention center (with residential housing); and another for a bus terminal (with residential housing). And I’m sure these proposals will include one or two units of “affordable” housing as a fig leaf, as is customary, in order to obtain tax “incentives.”

But when Jennifer Ananda takes office, the developers may be out of the saddle again at City Hall. The commission will have a majority of tax-break skeptics. Heck, as a condition of getting a building permit, they may even require developers to chip in for affordable housing — like taxpayers just volunteered to do.